| Kad HaKemach | |
| ืื ืืงืื | |
| Sefaria Community Translation | |
| https://www.sefaria.org | |
| Kad HaKemach | |
| Introduction | |
| Faith | |
| Love | |
| Guests | |
| Mourning | |
| Trust | |
| Blessing | |
| Synagogue | |
| Theft | |
| Arrogance | |
| Convert | |
| Redemption | |
| Laws | |
| Submission | |
| Providence | |
| Shaming | |
| Confession | |
| Section 1 | |
| "Against You alone have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your eyes; so that, etc." (Psalms 51:6). It is well-known that confession is a positive commandment which is in the Torah, as it is stated (Numbers 5:6-7), "When a man or woman shall commit any sin that men commit, to do a trespass against the Lord [...]. They shall confess the sins which they committed." And the content of confession is that they confess and say to the Holy One, blessed be He, "I have sinned before you." And the Rabbis, may their memory be blessed, expounded, "Once a person has confessed and said, 'I have sinned,' no angel is allowed anymore to touch him, as it is stated (Numbers 22:34), 'And Bilaam said to the angel of the Lord, "I have sinned because I did not know that you were standing in the way before me."'" And likewise do we find with the Jewish people that when they sinned by expressing evil speech against the manna, they confessed and said (Deuteronomy 21:7), "We sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you"; so the Holy One, blessed be He, forgave them immediately. And Moshe [too] prayed for them, as it is stated, "Moshe prayed on behalf of the people." And even with the wicked, confession atones. So once they have accepted their punishment and confession, they merit life in the world to come. For thus have we found with Aakhan, that he confessed and said (Joshua 7:20), "Indeed I have sinned against the Lord, God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done." And immediately after he confessed, Joshua said to him (Joshua 7:25), "What calamity you have brought upon us; the Lord will bring calamity upon you this day." And [the Rabbis], may their memory be blessed, expounded, "This day are you visited by calamity; but you are not visited by calamity for life in the world to come." And it is not necessary to say this about the Jewish people, for confession even atones for the [other] nations of the world. For this is what have we found [concerning] Adoni-bezek, a great king among the kings of the Canaanites; and there were seventy kings of Canaan with severed thumbs and big toes collecting scraps under his table. [Even so,] once he confessed and mentioned God, it was atoned for him. And that is that which is written at the beginning of Judges [Judges 1:5-7), "At Bezek, they encountered Adoni-bezek, engaged him in battle, and defeated the Canaanites and the Perizzites. Adoni-bezek fled, but they pursued him and captured him; and they cut off his thumbs and his big toes. And Adoni-bezek said, 'Seventy kings, with thumbs and big toes cut off, used to pick up scraps under my table; as I have done, so God has requited me.' They brought him to Jerusalem and he died there." What is of interest [here], that the verse mentioned his death in Jerusalem? Rather, it is to teach you that once he confessed and mentioned God, may He be blessed, in his confession, his death was atonement, since he accepted his punishment as being measure for measure. | |
| Straying of Heart and Eyes | |
| Flattery | |
| Desecration of God's Name | |
| Desire | |
| Groom | |
| Purity of the Heart | |
| Fear of God | |
| God's Unity | |
| Evil Inclination | |
| Honoring Parents | |
| Section 1 | |
| Come and see how beloved the commandment of honoring father and mother is in front of the Holy One, blessed be He! As the Holy One, blessed be He, does not distinguish between the righteous and the evil [in this regard]. From where do we [know this]? From the evil Esau. Since he honored his father, the Holy One, blessed by He, gave him 'all this honor' [as] his reward. Rabbi Eliezer says, "Esau wept three tears, one from his right eye, one from his left eye and the third solidified and did not descend. When? At the time that Yitzchak blessed Yaakov, as it is stated (Genesis 27:38), 'and Esav raised his voice and wept.'" Come and see how much tranquility the Holy One, blessed be He, gave him [as a result]! As it is stated (Psalms 80:6), "You fed them tears for bread; You gave them a third of the tears to drink." It is not written, "three," but rather "a third," since the three tears were not complete. And if the Holy One, blessed be He, repaid this evil one because he honored his father, all the more is it with a righteous person who honors his elders. The Holy One, blessed be He, said, "Is there anyone who gave his father honor and I did not give him children?" The commandment of honor is the fifth of the Ten Commandments, and it seals the first tablet. As behold, the tablet began with, "I am," which is honoring the ultimate Farther, and ends with, "Honor," which is about the reproductive father. And the commandment of honoring [parents] only came for the honor of the ultimate Father. And in the same way as the reproductive father, who engenders the child, is called father; so too is the ultimate Father, who engendered the soul and blew it from His holy spirit, called father. And greater are the kindnesses of the ultimate Father towards His creatures than the kindnesses of the reproductive father towards his child. For so did David say (Psalms 29:10), "Though my father and mother abandon me, the Lord will take me in." And likewise did Isaiah mention (Isaiah 63:16), "Surely You are our Father; though Abraham regard us not, and Israel recognize us not, You, O Lord, are our Father; from of old, Your name is 'Our Redeemer.'" It is saying, we did not know Avraham in the exile of Egypt, nor Yaakov in the desert. For the forefathers had already gone. And if so, You are the supernal ultimate Father. From of old, Your name is "Our Redeemer," since You redeemed us from Egypt. And likewise did Moshe, peace be upon him, mention (Deuteronomy 32:6), "is He not your Father, who made you His; He who made you and established you?" | |
| Atonement | |
| Slander | |
| Lulav | |
| God's Existence | |
| Mezuzah | |
| Circumcision | |
| Rain | |
| Section 1 | |
| When sufferings of chastisement come upon a person, he returns to the good. As the sages interpreted the Song of Songs, "Behold, you are beautiful, my beloved, and pleasant" - even when You bring upon me sufferings of chastisement, it is pleasant. Why? Because You return me thus to the good. Human repentance is never complete without suffering. Repentance is improving one's actions and character. It is not fasting and wearing sackcloth and wallowing in the dust and immersing in water while remaining soiled on the inside with sins and evil thoughts. And so said the prophet (Isaiah 58): "Do you call that a fast, A day when the LORD is favorable?" "No, this is the fast I desire: To unlock fetters of wickedness, And untie the cords of the yoke." [...] The intent of the Torah is that one should first cleanse oneself on the inside, casting out from one's heart the impurities of sin, and then return what one has taken unfairly or by violence, and ask forgiveness from one's friend. After immersing one's heart inwardly and doing all kinds of purification and cleansing oneself from sin, one should purify oneself also outwardly by fasting and immersing the body, and so on... | |
| Consolation | |
| Chanukah Lights | |
| Joy | |
| Sukkah | |
| Wanton Hatred | |
| Willow | |
| Shemini Atzeret | |
| Humility | |
| Wealth | |
| Sustenance | |
| Passover | |
| Section 1 | |
| ... And on this the Torah says (Exodus 13:7) "there will not be seen and there will not be found" - it will not be seen b'maaseh (in action) and will not be found b'machshava (in thought), rather one should anul it in his heart. The mitzvot have 3 categories: mitzvot of speech, of the heart and of action, as it is written (Deuteronomy 30:14) "in your mouth and in your heart to do it". Comes the Torah (instructing us) to anul it in the heart, corresponding to the mitzvot which are dependent on the heart. Comes the 'kabbalah' (instructing us) to eradicate it from the house or to burn it, corresponding to the mitzvot of action. And to say 'kol chamira', corresponding to mitzvot of speech. In this way the 3 categories of mitzvot are fulfilled through the prohibition of chametz, teaching you that the prohibition of chametz incorporates all the mitzvot... Just as the 'kabbalah' comes (instructing us) to eradicate chametz and (livdok) to check the house in nooks and in cracks, so too we are obligated to search and check the chambers of our inner being for bad (machshavas) intentions and bad (hirhurim) thoughts. Just as bedikat chametz (checking for chametz) is not valid by sunlight, nor by moonlight, nor by the light of a torch, but only by the light of a candle, so too the bedikah (checking) of the yetzer hara must be by the light of the neshama (soul) which is called 'ner' (candle), this is what is written (Proverbs 20:27) "the candle of Hashem is the soul of man, which searches the chambers of one's inner being. | |
| Purim | |
| Charity | |
| Fringes | |
| Holiness | |
| Jealousy | |
| Reshut (Permission) | |
| Rosh HaShanah | |
| Oath | |
| Shabbat | |
| Peace | |
| Shavuot | |
| Torah | |
| Prayer | |
| Repentance | |
| Fasting | |
| Tefillin | |